Rashford (right) and his boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær in training
United confront Villarreal in the UEFA Europa League final on Wednesday in Poland. A first trophy for the Norwegian tactician is on the cards. And Rashford is looking forward to lifting the trophy.
“Over time, you’ve seen him just grow and grow and grow,” the Englishman told UEFA.com.
“We’ve won a lot more games under him in a much shorter space of time than anybody could have imagined.
“He still has the winning mindset that he had when he was a player. He pushes us every day and every game to be better than the game before.
“He comes in and is honest with us; he says his opinion and we move on to the next game and get ready. For me, that’s a very important quality.
“It’s been a journey. It’s still the early stages of his, hopefully, long career at United. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and I feel that we’ve all grown.
“That’s why this game's important for us.
“We’re so close to being a team that can compete and win trophies every single season and, maybe winning this title, this Europa League, can give us that little push that we need.”
Solskjær's team competed in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) during the autumn, defeats in their final two Group H fixtures leaving them in third place on nine points behind Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig.
They have subsequently come through four Europa League ties, eliminating two Spanish clubs, Real Sociedad in the round of 32 (4-0 a, 0-0 h) and Granada in the quarter-finals (2-0 a, 2-0 h), as well as two from Italy – AC Milan in the round of 16 (1-1 h, 1-0 a) and Roma in the semi-finals (6-2 h, 2-3 a), the second-leg defeat in Rome ending their unbeaten run in this season's competition.
United have won only 16 of their 61 UEFA matches against Spanish opposition (D23 L22), though they are unbeaten in all four this spring (W3 D1), scoring eight goals and conceding none.
However, their last three European campaigns have all been terminated by Liga opposition – by Sevilla in both the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League round of 16 (0-0 a, 1-2 h) and last season's one-off UEFA Europa League semi-final in Cologne (1-2), and by Barcelona in the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League quarter-final (0-1 h, 0-3 a).
United's record in UEFA knockout ties against Spanish clubs is W9 L12.
This includes a record in finals of W1 L3, with defeats in each of the last three – against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League deciders of 2009 and 2011 (1-3 at Wembley) and by Real Madrid in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup (1-2 in Skopje).
Their only victory came in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final against Barcelona in Rotterdam (2-1).
Kick-off time for Villarreal versus Manchester United is 8 pm Nigerian time.
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